Help with invoking standard mail app in windows

Astan Chee

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Dec 18, 2009, 10:31:51 AM12/18/09

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Hi,
I'm trying to launch standard mail app in windows and after looking
around most look like this:

import urllib, webbrowser, win32api
def mailto_url(to=None,subject=None,body=None,cc=None):
"""
encodes the content as a mailto link as described on
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html
"""
url = "mailto: " + urllib.quote(to.strip(),"@,")
sep = "?"
if cc:
url+= sep + "cc=" + urllib.quote(cc,"@,")
sep = "&"
if subject:
url+= sep + "subject=" + urllib.quote(subject,"")
sep = "&"
if body:
# Also note that line breaks in the body of a message MUST be
# encoded with "%0D%0A". (RFC 2368)
body="\r\n".join(body.splitlines())
url+= sep + "body=" + urllib.quote(body,"")
sep = "&"
return url

url = mailto_url(txtTo,txtSubject,body,txtCC)
# win32api.ShellExecute(0,'open',url,None,None,0)
webbrowser.open(url,new=1)
# os.startfile(url)

all of these are having "WindowsError : [Error 5] Access is denied"
errors. I'm using windows xp and python 2.5. I have outlook 2007
installed as a default mail client. Clicking on any mailto links in html
brings up the normal write mail from the mail client. Any ideas why this
is happening or how do I debug what access is being denied?
Thanks for any help
Astan

Astan Chee

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Dec 18, 2009, 12:56:34 PM12/18/09

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Hi,
I don't know if my last mail made it or not but here it is again.

Kev Dwyer

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Dec 18, 2009, 2:18:12 PM12/18/09

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Hello Astan,

Your code executes without error for me on Win98 (!) with Python 2.5 or
XP with Python 2.6.

It would help people to help you if you could provide the *exact* console
output from when you try to execute the code, *including* the traceback.
That way we can work out which line of code is hitting the exception.

Cheers,

Kev

Astan Chee

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Dec 18, 2009, 2:36:32 PM12/18/09

to Kev Dwyer, pytho...@python.org

Kev Dwyer wrote:
> Hello Astan,
>
> Your code executes without error for me on Win98 (!) with Python 2.5 or
> XP with Python 2.6.
>
> It would help people to help you if you could provide the *exact* console
> output from when you try to execute the code, *including* the traceback.
> That way we can work out which line of code is hitting the exception.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kev
>
>

Hi,
My mistake. The length of body is over 1400 characters. Here is my
updated code and result:

import urllib, webbrowser, win32api
def mailto_url(to=None,subject=None,body=None,cc=None):
"""
encodes the content as a mailto link as described on
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html """
url = "mailto: " + urllib.quote(to.strip(),"@,")
sep = "?"
if cc:
url+= sep + "cc=" + urllib.quote(cc,"@,")
sep = "&"
if subject:
url+= sep + "subject=" + urllib.quote(subject,"")
sep = "&"
if body:
# Also note that line breaks in the body of a message MUST be
# encoded with "%0D%0A". (RFC 2368)
body="\r\n".join(body.splitlines())
url+= sep + "body=" + urllib.quote(body,"")
sep = "&"
return url

txtTo = "te...@com.com"
txtSubject = "Test Subject"
body = "Test body"
for t in range(278):
body+="test "
txtCC = "cc_...@com.com"

url = mailto_url(txtTo,txtSubject,body,txtCC)
#win32api.ShellExecute(0,'open',url,None,None,0)
webbrowser.open(url,new=1)
# os.startfile(url)

result:

Is there some sort of limitation here? If I shorten the string, it works
fine. You're right, but I'm wondering if there is a way to go around
this limitation.
Thanks again
Cheers
Astan

Kev Dwyer

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Dec 18, 2009, 3:24:06 PM12/18/09

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Hmmm.

For me, body < 1400 opens an outlook message form, body > 1400 opens IE7.

No time to look into this right now, but perhaps this is a windows thing.

Don't know why you get windowserror, perhaps permissions???

I'll try and look again later/tomorrow.

Cheers,

Kev

Kev Dwyer

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Dec 19, 2009, 7:19:23 AM12/19/09

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<snip>

>
> Is there some sort of limitation here? If I shorten the string, it works
> fine. You're right, but I'm wondering if there is a way to go around
> this limitation.
> Thanks again
> Cheers
> Astan

Hello Astan,

After a bit of experimentation I find I get the same problem on XP using
2.6 for len(body) > 1973, using the os.startfile method. Some light
googling suggests this is probably a limit within Outlook itself.

If you just want a way to start Outlook programmatically you may be able
to work around this by automating Outlook - try googling python outlook
automation.

If you want to start a default mail client on any machine using the
mailto protocol then you'll have to limit the size of your message
bodies. You may find that other mail clients have limits too - I doubt
that any client (or browser) will accept urls of unlimited size.

Cheers,

Kev